Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is now several weeks later publicly stating that she opposes President Joe Biden’s executive order expanding the sex discrimination protections in the federal Title IX statute to include people based on their “gender identity,” including men who want to compete against women in sports.
“Across the sporting world, the game is being rigged against women and in favor of biological men,” Haley, also a former governor of South Carolina, wrote Monday for National Review. “President Biden is the latest man to do the rigging, which is strange coming from someone billed as a defender of women.”
“In one of his first acts as president, he signed an executive order paving the way for a federal mandate that all schools receiving federal funding let biological men play on women’s sports teams,” Haley wrote. “The order was framed as a matter of transgender rights. But really, it was an attack on women’s rights.”
Haley’s remarks also include her belief that “transgender kids deserve support and respect” but “the fact remains, however, that biological boys and girls are built differently” and “the best male athletes have a natural advantage over the best female athletes.”
Her comments come weeks after Biden’s order, made in his first week in office. Biden has been president now for three full weeks. Haley is widely viewed as a potential GOP candidate for president in 2024, and if she were to seek the nomination, she would likely pursue a donor-class establishment lane divorced from former President Donald Trump’s base on issues like this, immigration, abortion, and other cultural matters.
Fox News reported on Biden’s nod to the LGBT lobby:
Biden’s executive order that included the language about children and school sports is more largely focused on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,” it says.
“Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love,” the order states. “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports. Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes.”
“People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination,” it continues. “All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Last year, 17 states introduced bills to restrict athletes’ participation in sports based on their sex and not their “gender identity.”
“The Trump administration supported the ban, but a federal judge temporarily blocked its implementation after a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union,” Fox reported.
Despite being weeks late to the fight, Haley’s announcement on this issue is already drawing the ire of left-wing activists and media, including Refinery 19, which reported she is now among women labeled as a TERF — or “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”:
Under the guise of being a feminist and protecting women, Haley is arrantly discriminating against transgender women. And she’s not the only one. Republican Senator Mike Lee also decided to cast himself as a fervent “defender” of women in order to argue against transgender girls participating in sports programs. Citing the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, he has fought to get a bill passed that would revoke federal funding from schools that allow transgender women and girls to participate in sports according to their gender identity. He claimed it was part of a “deliberate, sadistic effort” to “harm girls.” The bill was introduced by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Rep. Markwayne Mullin; former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler was the bill’s lead sponsor.
But one thing is clear: this is not about women’s rights. Haley may say it is, but her actions show that she cares more about exclusion and her own narrow definition of gender than she does about actually protecting the people who identify as women. So let’s call her what she really is here: a TERF.
It remains to be seen if Haley will run in 2024, but she has launched a political action committee and is likely to campaign with several GOP candidates in the upcoming midterm election.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com.
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